A MySQL connection links (connects) Workbench to a MySQL server.
Most actions performed within Workbench are then performed
against the connected MySQL server. Each MySQL connection
contains its own set of definitions, so you might define
multiple MySQL connections in Workbench. For example, the
connections might connect to different MySQL servers, or the
same MySQL server with different user names, or enable SSL for
one, or you might set up a connection to a remote MySQL server
(on your web host?) using the SSH options, and so on.

As for multiple connections to the same local MySQL server, you
might have one connection using "root" with another using a less
privileged user. Depending on how you set up the users, they may
(or may not) both have rights to see and use the same databases
(information). For example, you might use Workbench to configure
and use the less-privileged user that you use for your web
application.

So to summarize, connections simply connect to the MySQL server.
If two connections use the same exact information then the
results in Workbench will be identical. However, that is not a
common use case. For additional information about MySQL
connections in MySQL Workbench, see
Chapter 5, Connections in MySQL Workbench.

A.2.

Does MySQL Workbench support the TLSv1.2 protocol?

Because TLSv1.2 requires OpenSSL, support for this protocol is
available for MySQL Workbench Commercial Editions, and not for the
Community Edition (which is compiled using yaSSL and supports
TLSv1.1 only).

A.3.

How do I create a MySQL database (schema) in MySQL Workbench?

Open a MySQL connection to open the SQL editor.

On the left pane there is an Object Browser that contains
two tabs titled Management and
Schemas. Choose the schemas tab
(default).

Right-click anywhere in the Schemas
pane and choose Create Schema
from the context-menu.

Follow the schema creation wizard by naming your new schema,
and click Apply to create your new
schema.

Other options include clicking the "Create Schema" icon on the
main navigation bar, or executing a "CREATE SCHEMA your_db_name"
query in the SQL editor.

A.4.

Is there an easy way to select all data from a table, and then
see the results?

From the schema navigator, hover over the table and click the
icon. This executes a "SELECT * FROM
schema.table" query and loads the results into the result grid.
From there you can view or edit the data.

Alternatively, right-click on a table and select
Select Rows - Limit 1000 form the
context menu.

How do I use the SSL Certificate wizard to enable SSL for both
my MySQL server and MySQL client?

Execute the wizard to generate the SSL certificates, and then
modify your MySQL server's configuration file
(my.cnf or my.ini)
accordingly. You can copy-n-paste entries for the SSL options
from the generated sample-my.cnf sample
file. Next, confirm that the SSL CA File,
CERT File, and Key
File values are properly set under the
SSL tab for your MySQL connection. Set
Use SSL to either
Require (recommended) or If
available, and then execute Test
Connection. This should report that SSL is enabled.

How do I copy my saved MySQL connections in Workbench to a
different computer?

From the main navigation menu, choose Tools,
Configuration, and then
Backup Connections to create a Zip
file with your configured MySQL connections. Next, load this
file into your new Workbench instance by using the related
Restore Connections option.

A.3.

How can I view my MySQL Workbench query history?

In bottom pane, change Action Output to
History and then choose the appropriate
date.

The SQL statement history is stored as plain text on your system
under your user's
MySQL Workbench configuration path in the
sql_history directory. These files are
organized per date (such as 2014-01-15) and contain your
MySQL Workbench SQL statement history for all MySQL connections.

A.4.

Can I preserve a results tab rather than have it refresh every
time I execute a statement?

Yes, you can pin the results tab to force it to remain and be
unaffected by UPDATE and other statements. Do that by
right-clicking the result tab and choose "Pin Tab" from the
context-menu, or left-click the little pin icon to toggle it.
Now, execute your other queries and then refresh the pinned tab
(there is a "refresh" icon in the result grid's menu).

A.5.

How does the embedded web browser functionality work? For
example, clicking Workbench Forum on the
Home screen opens the forum in its own embedded MySQL Workbench tab.

The Webkit system library is used on OS X, Internet Explorer is
used on Windows, and Linux opens the default browser externally
rather than an embedded browser. Pressing
Modifier + Arrow moves the
browser history forward and back.

When a model is exported (Database,
Forward Engineer...), some MySQL server
variables are temporarily set to enable faster SQL import by the
server. The statements added at the start of the code are:

SET @OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS=@@UNIQUE_CHECKS, UNIQUE_CHECKS=0;
SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;
SET @OLD_SQL_MODE=@@SQL_MODE, SQL_MODE='TRADITIONAL,ALLOW_INVALID_DATES';

These statements function as follows:

SET @OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS=@@UNIQUE_CHECKS,
UNIQUE_CHECKS=0;: Determines whether
InnoDB performs duplicate key checks.
Import is much faster for large data sets if this check is
not performed. For additional information, see
unique_checks.

SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS,
FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;: Determines whether the
server should check that a referenced table exists when
defining a foreign key. Due to potential circular
references, this check must be turned off for the duration
of the import, to permit defining foreign keys. For
additional information, see
foreign_key_checks.

SET @OLD_SQL_MODE=@@SQL_MODE,
SQL_MODE='TRADITIONAL';: Sets
SQL_MODE to
TRADITIONAL, causing the
server to operate in a more restrictive mode, and
ALLOW_INVALID_DATES,
causing dates to not be fully validated.

These server variables are then reset at the end of the script
using the following statements:

SET SQL_MODE=@OLD_SQL_MODE;
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS;
SET UNIQUE_CHECKS=@OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS;

Why do my query results sometimes say Read
Only but other times I can edit data in the results
grid?

Data in the query results grid is only editable when the query
results includes a primary key. For example, "SELECT type FROM
food" will be read-only if "type" is not a primary key, but
"SELECT id, type FROM food" will be editable when "id" is a
primary key. Typically, "SELECT *" syntax is used in Workbench
which often includes query results with a primary key.

For additional information, hover over the "Read Only" icon to
reveal a tooltip that explains why your result set is in
read-only mode.

A.2.

I'm attempting to execute a DELETE query but the query fails
with an "Error Code: 1175" error. How do I proceed?

By default, Workbench is configured to not execute DELETE or
UPDATE queries that do not include a WHERE clause on a KEY
column. To alter this behavior, open your Workbench
Preferences, select the SQL
Editor section, and disable the following preference:

[ ] "Safe Updates". Forbid UPDATEs and DELETEs with no key
in WHERE clause or no LIMIT clause.

Changing this preference requires you to reconnect to your MySQL
server before it can take affect.

A.3.

My MySQL server connection is timing out with an error like
"Error Code: 2013. Lost connection to MySQL server during
query". Can I adjust the timeout?

Yes, go to Preferences, SQL
Editor, and adjust the DBMS connection read
time out option that defaults to 600 seconds. This
sets the maximum amount of time (in seconds) that a query can
take before MySQL Workbench disconnects from the MySQL server.

Open a MySQL connection, and select Server
from the main navigation menu and choose Data
Export to open the data export wizard. Alternatively,
choose Data Export from the left Management
pane for the desired MySQL selection.

Here you can choose which databases to export, whether or not to
include the data, dump to a single file or multiple files (one
per table), and more. For additional details, see
Section 6.5, “Data Export and Import”.